Georgia once again asks Ukraine to extradite its former president Saakashvili

Mikheil Saakashvili

TBILISI, February 19. /TASS/. The office of Georgia’s chief prosecutor has not received a reply from the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office yet to its request for the extradition of the former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, First Deputy Chief Prosecutor Irakly Shotadze told the media in Tbilisi on Thursday.

"It is a long while since we dispatched to Kiev our first request for the extradition of Mikheil Saakashvili to Georgia. We have not received a reply to this day. Then we sent another such request. No answer at this point, either."

Shotadze suspects that the Prosecutor-General’s Office is reluctant to cooperate with Georgia on the issue. In the meantime, he said under the international treaties and previously achieved bilateral agreements Ukraine is obliged to start the extradition of persons who are on Georgia’s wanted list.

The office of Georgia’s chief prosecutor on February 17 said it had formally asked Ukraine to detain Saakashvili and extradite him to Georgia.

"The issue is in the consideration phase. We are making extradition-related checks. We have neither dismissed nor sustained the extradition request," Ukraine’s Deputy Prosecutor-General Vitaly Kasko said.

Saakashvili left Georgia in November 2013 several days before the inauguration of the current head of state, Georgy Margvelashvili. At home he is wanted for abuse of office, masterminding an armed attack against a legislator, and embezzlement of several million dollars of government money.